Once a Hindu gentleman whose name I do not recall1 came to see me in Qadian. He said he wanted to convene a religious conference2 and requested me to write an article about the beauties of my religion to be read out at the conference. At first, I demurred but he insisted that I must write. I know that I cannot do anything on my own strength—indeed, I do not have any strength at all. I can’t speak unless God makes me speak, nor can I see anything unless He makes me see. I, therefore, prayed to God that He may reveal to me a discourse that may triumph over all the speeches of that conference. After this supplication, I found that a strength had been breathed into me. I felt in me a stirring of this heavenly power.
My friends who were present at the time know that I did not write any preliminary draft of this discourse. Whatever I wrote, I wrote extempore. And I was writing with such speed and haste that the copyist found it hard to keep pace with me. When I finished writing the discourse, I received this revelation from God Almighty:
The paper has been declared supreme.
Thus, when that dissertation was read out in that conference, the audience was in an ecstasy while it was being read out and applause was heard from every direction, so much so that the Hindu gentleman who presided over the conference could not help exclaiming,3 ‘This paper has been declared supreme over all others!’
An English newspaper, the Civil and Military Gazette, which is published from Lahore, also published its testimony that the paper transcended all others. About twenty Urdu newspapers also gave the same testimony. With the exception of a few prejudiced individuals, it was on every tongue in that conference that this paper had triumphed.
To this day there are hundreds of people who continue to give the same testimony. Thus, with the testimony of every sect, as well as of the English newspapers, my prophecy, ‘The paper transcended all others’, was fulfilled. This challenge was like the one that Prophet Musa(as) [Moses] had to take up against the sorcerers, for in this conference exponents of different schools of thought delivered speeches about their respective faiths. Some of them were Christians, some were Hindus of Sanatan Dharam or Aryah Samaj, some were Brahmus, some were Sikhs, and some were Muslims who oppose us. All of them had turned their staffs into imaginary snakes, but when God unleashed the rod of Islam’s truth against them in the form of a pure and profound discourse, it turned into a python and devoured all of them. To this day people are all praise for the discourse that had issued from my mouth. 
[So Allah be praised for all this].
1 I now recall; his name was Swami Shugan Chandar. (Author)
2 The name advertised for this conference was Dharam Mahotso Jalsa-e-‘Azam Mazahib [Conference of Great Religions]. (Author)
3 Since the paper dealt with all aspects of the five advertised questions, the time allotted for it was not sufficient to read it completely. Therefore at the heartfelt insistence of the audience the meeting was extended by one day. This was also an indication of its general approval. (Author)